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Age-old process of voting on school matters

The debate over building a new facility at Cawley Stadium or keeping the school at its downtown location has caused a major rift among the two sides.

Then the surprised announcement that the Head of School Brian Martin will retire in June added a whole new dimension to the high-school saga.

I'm honored to have been selected to serve on the preliminary screening committee to replace Martin.

I have done a little research in preparation for the first meeting of the screening committee and came across a story that goes back nearly 80 years and included some famous Lowell names who were seeking to become the headmaster of Lowell High in 1938.

The committee, in that era, had all the power to hire principals and it took nearly 70 ballots and several weeks to elect the man who only had one vote through most of the balloting.

The Sun sensed something was amiss in the process and gave extensive coverage to the story and the newspaper became major advocates for reform of the hiring process for Lowell schools.

A special legislative act was approved where for years candidates for professional jobs in Lowell schools had to take an exam and be placed on a ranked list in order to be hired.

The story dominated local news for weeks with innuendo of political patronage or even worse situations playing a role in filling positions in the city's school department.

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The process of hiring a headmaster began on March 3, 1938, when School Committee member Arthur McGlinchey filed a motion to have the position filled through a competitive exam with the board being required to elect the person who got the highest score.

The motion was defeated 6-1.

Officially, there were nine candidates who the Superintendent of Schools Vincent M. McCartin called "qualified."

The list included Joseph Pyne, James

Conway, Raymond Sullivan, D. Murray Cummings, Charles DeLorme, William Dennett, Joseph MacAvinnue, John Walcott and Elmer Brennan. Even another well-known Lowell educator, Dana Palmer, who was not even a candidate got a vote on one of the ballots.

The committee took eight roll-call votes on the first night and no candidate had more than two votes on any ballot before they voted to adjourn for the night.

They continued roll-call votes on May 12, 17 and 19 with no candidate getting the necessary four votes.

On May 31, the deadlock was broken and Raymond Sullivan was elected.

He served for more than 30 years in the job.

That election is part of the political folklore of Lowell. Sullivan started with one vote. Committee member Dodge voted for him on every ballot. On the final ballot, he picked up the votes of committee members Calnan, O'Sullivan and Preston. Pyne, Conway and DeLorme had one vote each.

Let's hope this process goes a little smoother this time.

It looks like a vote on the location of the high school is at least off until June and maybe into August.

The other day I took a ride on Douglas Road where the school probably would front if the Cawley site is selected. By my count there were 33 signs on the school issue. There were 31 for the downtown location and just two for Cawley.

A very strong not-in-my yard vote.

Of course, there are other streets in Belvidere where lawn signs show a more balanced split between the Cawley and downtown sites.

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